New Mtg., Business Travel Services Bloom In Bermuda
<B>New Mtg., Business Travel Services Bloom In Bermuda</B>
By Frank Rosci
Meeting attendees headed to Bermuda, the world's largest off-shore business center, will discover several new and enhanced hotel options. Planners also will have the opportunity to save on guest rooms booked for meetings on the island.
"On average, meetings, conferences and incentives account for 40 percent of hotel room sales in Bermuda annually," said Dianne Carlson, senior marketing manager of North American group and incentive sales at the Bermuda Department of Tourism in New York.
The number of corporate meetings has grown in recent years and more meetings related to high-tech companies are coming to the island, Carlson said. "We consider meetings, particularly the ones about technology, a great partnership, good for the groups and good for Bermuda," she added.
To accommodate the technological demands of today's business travelers and meeting attendees, Bermuda's hotels have stepped up their services, including high-speed Internet access for them. Groups have discovered they don't always have to come during the island's high season, April to November.
"Attention to the bottom line also has groups booking more during the value season, which extends the meeting season in Bermuda throughout the year," she said. During a meetings promotion, now in its second year, four award-winning Bermuda resort hotels--the Fairmont Southampton Princess, the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, the Sonesta Beach Resort and Elbow Beach Resort--are offering a $50 credit per room, per night to all groups, including meetings, conferences and incentive trips during the off season.
"Group travel planners now can combine the perfect meeting destination with enormous value and flexibility during this time," Carlson said. The program, which began in August and is valid for all new bookings between now and March 31, 2001, requires a minimum booking of 15 rooms for three nights at any of the four hotels.
At the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, located in the island's business bastion, several major changes are underway. Leading the way is the introduction of the new Entree Gold floor, a hotel-within-a-hotel designed to meet the specific needs of business travelers and upscale guests, said Michael Kaile, vice president and general manager of the hotel. Private checkin, concierge services and use of the fitness center, among other touches, will be featured. The project is set to begin this Christmas and expected to be completed by May. Privileges will extend to business services that include complimentary fax, photocopying and private workstations.
"We are Bermuda's business address, not a hotel by the beach but in Hamilton's business district. Since we focus on the independent business traveler, we created Entree Gold, which is 100 suites or 25 percent of total guest rooms, on the hotel's top floor," Kaile said. Other improvements at the hotel include a completed renovation of the 8,000-sq.-ft. Harborside Ballroom, with banquet and reception space for up to 400 attendees, and in-progress upgrades of four meeting rooms.
The Hamilton Princess' sister property, the Fairmont Southampton Princess, also is in the midst of major upgrades and renovations. Entree Gold, which is priced $75 more than a deluxe room, is already up and running, and the new product is proving a success, said Paule Riverin, director of sales and marketing. "This hotel is a full-service resort where meeting business, our number-one market, accounts for 60 percent of our overall business," she said. "The 54 Entree Gold rooms we have now, with 26 more units to be opened by April, will help us retain more business for longer periods of time because of the services the product offers."
In addition, the hotel's lobby will be redone by Jan. 1, a new lobby lounge, three times as large as the present one, will open by May 1 and a new 30,000-sq.-ft. world-class spa, the only one of its kind in Bermuda, will open in January 2002.